The ending is like the Star Wars prequels, except if it suddenly turned into the Star Wars Prequels at the climax of Return of the Jedi. It's like if Palpatine was Force Lightning-ing Luke, and Jarjar comes out of nowhere, pushes Palpatine into the pit, and goes. "Oops! Mesa so clumsy!" Roll credits.

I would've liked to have seen a little more fighting on Earth. Like a couple of optional sidemissions to make the main assault easier. Maybe liberating POW camps and choosing to destroy it/kill everyone to deny the Reapers the husks, or save who you can but leave it standing so it still makes husks, etc.

I would've liked to have seen a little more fighting on Earth. Like a couple of optional sidemissions to make the main assault easier. Maybe liberating POW camps and choosing to destroy it/kill everyone to deny the Reapers the husks, or save who you can but leave it standing so it still makes husks, etc.

That would be impossible, did you see how many reapers were sitting around Earth? And apparently the stealth systems on the Normandy are irrelevant to reapers...so there's no way that could happen.

I just read The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3, that app by Geoff Keighley. Great read, it goes into a lot of details from the very start of the franchise back in 2003. Codename SFX was the name of the game in early development (WIP name) and Casey Hudson was the one to actually come up with the idea of ME games and he approached the Docs with it and they liked it. Really great read. Also, I can now see why the ending was this crappy and why the game is full of some weird bugs, it's because it was the biggest game in the franchise but it had the shortest development cycle. Casey said that the team was really on the edge because of it, and the only delay they got was from Dec 2011 to March 2012 which was still not enough. Because of this, Palaven mission was cut from the game(We were also suppose to go to Turian homeworld, not just their moon) and some other stuff. So, eventually, I don't think the full blame is on BioWare, majority should probably lie in EA's hands. They are the ones who wanted the game out in an extremely short period of time (The original development time for ME3 was LESS than 2 years!!)

I just read The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3, that app by Geoff Keighley. Great read, it goes into a lot of details from the very start of the franchise back in 2003. Codename SFX was the name of the game in early development (WIP name) and Casey Hudson was the one to actually come up with the idea of ME games and he approached the Docs with it and they liked it. Really great read. Also, I can now see why the ending was this crappy and why the game is full of some weird bugs, it's because it was the biggest game in the franchise but it had the shortest development cycle. Casey said that the team was really on the edge because of it, and the only delay they got was from Dec 2011 to March 2012 which was still not enough. Because of this, Palaven mission was cut from the game(We were also suppose to go to Turian homeworld, not just their moon) and some other stuff. So, eventually, I don't think the full blame is on BioWare, majority should probably lie in EA's hands. They are the ones who wanted the game out in an extremely short period of time (The original development time for ME3 was LESS than 2 years!!)

The development of ME3 was at least more than 2 years, because it was being worked on even before ME2's release, and ME2 released January of 2010, and ME3 March of 2012, 26 months plus a little more.

I just read The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3, that app by Geoff Keighley. Great read, it goes into a lot of details from the very start of the franchise back in 2003. Codename SFX was the name of the game in early development (WIP name) and Casey Hudson was the one to actually come up with the idea of ME games and he approached the Docs with it and they liked it. Really great read. Also, I can now see why the ending was this crappy and why the game is full of some weird bugs, it's because it was the biggest game in the franchise but it had the shortest development cycle. Casey said that the team was really on the edge because of it, and the only delay they got was from Dec 2011 to March 2012 which was still not enough. Because of this, Palaven mission was cut from the game(We were also suppose to go to Turian homeworld, not just their moon) and some other stuff. So, eventually, I don't think the full blame is on BioWare, majority should probably lie in EA's hands. They are the ones who wanted the game out in an extremely short period of time (The original development time for ME3 was LESS than 2 years!!)

That's kind of depressing, actually. More publishers need to understand the virtues of not releasing a game until it's at it's best.

I just read The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3, that app by Geoff Keighley. Great read, it goes into a lot of details from the very start of the franchise back in 2003. Codename SFX was the name of the game in early development (WIP name) and Casey Hudson was the one to actually come up with the idea of ME games and he approached the Docs with it and they liked it. Really great read. Also, I can now see why the ending was this crappy and why the game is full of some weird bugs, it's because it was the biggest game in the franchise but it had the shortest development cycle. Casey said that the team was really on the edge because of it, and the only delay they got was from Dec 2011 to March 2012 which was still not enough. Because of this, Palaven mission was cut from the game(We were also suppose to go to Turian homeworld, not just their moon) and some other stuff. So, eventually, I don't think the full blame is on BioWare, majority should probably lie in EA's hands. They are the ones who wanted the game out in an extremely short period of time (The original development time for ME3 was LESS than 2 years!!)

EA's been trying to push the one game per 1.5-2 year mindset on Bioware since they first bought them, hence Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3.

That's kind of depressing, actually. More publishers need to understand the virtues of not releasing a game until it's at it's best.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a particularly pertinent example. The delay was what, a year or more? And even after that the Hengsha hub was sliced in half, and the Montreal hub removed completely. Yet the final product was polished to damn-near perfection.

I dread to think what parts of ME3 would have been like if Palaven etc. had been kept, and they were still forced to meet the deadline.

That's kind of depressing, actually. More publishers need to understand the virtues of not releasing a game until it's at it's best.

Indeed. I mean, I gotta say, BioWare's team working on ME series is a bunch of very talented people. But when you have a corporation like EA, who's only goal is money and nothing else, there is only so much BioWare can do. And it's a fact. They are OWNED by EA, they gotta do what EA says. And if EA wanted the game out ASAP, they had to make it somehow. This only makes me hate EA even more than I did before.

Casey also shed some light on the controversial Day 1 DLC for 10$ thing. Originally, Prothean character was a part of the storyline. You were suppose to find out about the Catalyst and other stuff from him and he's suppose to help, but at one point Cerberus kidnaps him. And again, due to a really short dev cycle and I guess pressure from EA, it was cut out. That actually cause a lot more trouble because they had to go through the story again and revise the parts there were intended with Prothean in the game.

Casey also shed some light on the controversial Day 1 DLC for 10$ thing. Originally, Prothean character was a part of the storyline. You were suppose to find out about the Catalyst and other stuff from him and he's suppose to help, but at one point Cerberus kidnaps him. And again, due to a really short dev cycle and I guess pressure from EA, it was cut out. That actually cause a lot more trouble because they had to go through the story again and revise the parts there were intended with Prothean in the game.

Casey also shed some light on the controversial Day 1 DLC for 10$ thing. Originally, Prothean character was a part of the storyline. You were suppose to find out about the Catalyst and other stuff from him and he's suppose to help, but at one point Cerberus kidnaps him. And again, due to a really short dev cycle and I guess pressure from EA, it was cut out. That actually cause a lot more trouble because they had to go through the story again and revise the parts there were intended with Prothean in the game.

Yup. But like I said, they had a lot more meant for the Prothean char, which was cut due to short development cycle.

Either EA's going to understand that Bioware needs more time to develop games that appease both critics and fans, or they're going to just tighten the noose around Bioware until they no longer exist as we remember them.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a particularly pertinent example. The delay was what, a year or more? And even after that the Hengsha hub was sliced in half, and the Montreal hub removed completely. Yet the final product was polished to damn-near perfection.

You forgot to mention India was supposed to be in the game too.

But still, Human Revolution was definitely well done for how long it took, if Mass Effect 3 needed an extra year to work everything out it would've been worth it.

Seriously, why rush things out when you can take your time to polish things and get an even bigger and better payoff as a result? Heck, Valve does that and even though they get alot of flak for delays, when they release a game it turns out to be really good, and as a result people are more willing to spend money.

Seriously, why rush things out when you can take your time to polish things and get an even bigger and better payoff as a result? Heck, Valve does that and even though they get alot of flak for delays, when they release a game it turns out to be really good, and as a result people are more willing to spend money.

The thought process is EA's trying to beat Activision at it's own game, specifically at being able to make annual blockbusters. Besides, Valve is a different breed of company from Activision and EA entirely, in both the mindset of their management and the market focus.

I feel bad for casey right now, as I imagine him sitting in a bar drinking whiskey thinking where it all went wrong

I feel bad for the whole team, really. Not that they're innocent in all this, but that they really put a hell of a lot of heart and soul into the bulk of the game, only to have the pride and joy snatched from them with the grand finale.